For ads, we worked with Microsoft to make ad clicks protected. Replying to his thread, Weinberg said, “When you load our search results, you are completely anonymous, including ads.

He said, “You can capture data within the DuckDuckGo so-called private browser on a website like Facebook’s, and you’ll see that DDG does NOT stop data flow to Microsoft’s Linkedin domains or their Bing advertising domains.” DDG’s CEO defended the browser’s privacy standĮdwards’ thread caught the attention of the Founder and CEO of DDG, Gabriel Weinberg. From the earlier version that read “Tracker Radar automatically blocks hidden third-party tracking scripts lurking on websites you visit in DuckDuckGo,” it now reads “, Tracker Radar automatically blocks most hidden third-party tracking scripts lurking on websites you visit in DuckDuckGo.”Įdwards also presented proof that the data flow was happening. Notably, after Edwards’ thread went viral, DDG changed the description by adding ‘most’ in the description. He further added screenshots of the description of the app on Google Play Store that clearly mentioned that the trackers are blocked on DDG. In a detailed Twitter thread, researcher Zack Edwards said that the DDG does not block Microsoft Data flow while it blocks other trackers. Edwards revealed Microsoft trackers were allowed It further read that the information collected “is not associated with a user advertising profile”, which is common with other browsers. However, it may track the IP address and other information for ‘accounting purposes’ upon clicking an ad link. Reportedly, DuckDuckGo (DDG) has the obligation under a search agreement with Microsoft to allow its tracker to monitor certain details of the users.Īccording to a report in Bleeping Computers, DDG does not store any personal identifiers of the users associated with the search queries.

However, on May 24 (local time), it was revealed by security researcher Zack Edwards how the browser was blocking Google and Facebook trackers but provided an exception to Microsoft trackers. DuckDuckGo is often considered to be a go-to browser for users who are concerned about tech giants collecting data while browsing.

Duck and go